Sunday of Lesley: Opera

La commedia e finita

Well, Pagliacci is over, and with it ends the opera season. Very sad, but I can't say I'm not looking forward to a bit of a break.

Who am I kidding; I'm sure I'll miss it fiercely next week!

Beppe's bottle never did hit any of us, the truck never ran off the edge of the stage, and nobody fell off any ladders. A very good closing weekend!

I should give more details about the run, but there was a closing party afterwards (which was great), and then we went to dinner, so my mind is a bit tired and ready to zone out and watch television. I'll post more in a day or so. And I've written about the rehearsals, if you look through the archives.

I've put my pictures in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy! And if you have any you'd like to send me, I'll post them in there as well!

Din Don (or is it Don Din?)

Pagliacci has been going extremely well! We got a great review in the paper and everyone seems to love it.

Karl, Elizabeth, Michael and David came to the show on Sunday and had a wonderful time, which kind of makes it all worth it. And they send me a gigantic bouquet of flowers...made me feel quite the star!

The "wedding party" each night is great. Everyone is happy and laughing and excited, and even though it's just a show, that kind of energy sort of builds on itself. It's just fun. And I think happy scenes are WAY easier than tragic ones...they're much less draining, and at the end of the night you're ready to go out and party. I remember during Manon, nobody EVER went out...we were so exhausted from crying and screaming and getting beaten up. This doesn't seem like as much work!

I had a chance to see the snake up close and personal...brrrrr. I must say, as far as nine-foot albino pythons go, it has a pretty little face. And darned if it didn't have a personality. But still...brrrrr.

One of the funnier things that's happened so far is Boris (the groom) missing our entrance! I had to walk out by myself...the chorus girls were leaning over whispering, "Oh, poor thing! Where's your husband?" I felt quite left at the altar. Still, Boris rushed in halfway through the scene and felt terrible about it. And we've been teasing him mercilessly ever since, so he won't be able to live it down for a while.

It's been great having a big dressing room all to ourselves this time. Just us, the dancers, and the little girls, which is a nice change from a bazillion chorus girls (not that there's anything wrong with them...). Our room is quiet and cool and smells like expensive perfume.

Beppe throws a bottle in the second act, and we have a pool going every night on where it's going to land! We know that the stage management fully expects us to stop it from going into the orchestra pit, no matter how ungraceful it may be! Last night it went straight up in the air; the 4 of us in the front watched, horrified, as it hovered in the lights, then crashed back down to the stage. It didn't hit any of us this time...this time. Sitting as close as I do, I get spit on by the principals every night (especially since it's been so dry on stage), but getting beaned in the head by a prop bottle and then making a frantic dash to body-block it from the pit seems a little humiliating in front of 3,000 people.

I've been watching John's "Vesti" aria every night from the wings. It's the best staging I've ever seen in a production of Pagliacci, and John is such a great actor. It's mesmerizing. And it reminds me that no matter how much fun I have hanging out downstairs with the cast, this is where the real magic is for me. This is what brings me back year after year. Squeezed into a space in the wings, peering out into the lights and the stage, spellbound by a singer not 20 feet away, hearing the audience and feeling disconnected from them because I don't have to buy a ticket and sit in the third tier, knowing that I'm a part of this and feeling that, for a few minutes, everything in life makes sense and is perfect. And thinking, my god, I must be the luckiest person in the world to have this.

The Fat Lady Sang...And It's Over

(And don't get excited, that's just an expression...opera singers seem to be getting trimmer, for the most part.)

Well, the opera is over now and I'm a bit sad and a bit relieved. On the one hand, it was a great show for us and I'll miss seeing everyone. And how exciting was it that we were mentioned in the LA Times review?? Right at the beginning, he devoted two or three sentences to complimenting us! They liked us, they really liked us!!

On the other hand, never again will I have to move that darn settee around (while wearing a corset, no less)!

I'm looking forward to having some time off...I've been on the go every evening and weekend since before Thanksgiving, and I'm ready for a break! I don't think I'll be able to sing in the spring concert this year; I've already missed so many of the rehearsals because of Cosi. That's a shame, but it'll give me a chance to take some classes I've had an interest in. And I'll be able to take a nice vacation at the end of April, which I'm already avidly planning!

I also discovered that what everyone said was true; as soon as I finished redecorating my kitchen, I decided that everything else looked bad and so I'm about to start on a major revamp of my living room, den, and bathroom. *sigh*...I hope I don't regret taking it all on...!

Anyway, there are opera pictures in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy!

Closing Night

I'm just about ready to head to the theatre for the closing performance of Cosi. Closing day always makes me a bit melancholy...all the work we put into the show, the costumes and props that have become like old friends, the music that's been in your head incessantly for the past 5 weeks...all coming to an end.

Also, having done operas for 12 years now, I know that realistically I won't see some of these great supers again - my friends - for possibly a couple of years. I'll be in shows, they'll be in shows, but all of us being together doesn't happen very frequently. Heck, the last time I worked with Alan was 1999. It's pretty sad.

Still, that's show biz for you.

Last night we came off stage and I was standing in the wings giggling over something that had happened onstage to one of the other supers (because of course, if it had happened to me, I wouldn't be giggling about it!) and one of the principals smiled at me and said, "These are the times that create the stories."

How true that is. In my mind, I have a storage chest of Happy Thoughts. I think that started when I saw a production of "Peter Pan" as a child. Ever since then, when something very wonderful or very funny has happened, I've said to myself, "This will be one of my Happy Thoughts." I suppose when I was little I was storing them up to use just in case Peter Pan ever tried to fly me to Neverland! But as an adult, sometimes you just need to open the storage chest and pull out one or two Happy Thoughts. And a lot of them have happened in operas. These are the times that create the stories; these are the times that create the Happy Thoughts.

How sentimental I'm being! Time to put that aside and focus on the last performance.

And, by the way, Bill was right...we DO have it down just about perfectly now, the last night!

Maaaaaids!

I haven't been on my web site much lately, but then, I haven't been doing much of anything lately that isn't opera related! Cosi Fan Tutte opened this week, and if it isn't the theater I haven't been going there; if it isn't Mozart I haven't been listening to it; if it isn't my cheat sheet I haven't been reading it; and if your name isn't Don Alfonso or Dorabella, I probably haven't been talking to you.

We had a ton of rehearsals for this one, and that's because we're so VERY important in the production. Well, in our own minds we are, anyway. We play the servants, and we do all the scene changes...and there are something like 16, at last count. Plus we occasionally hang out on stage and look pretty. (Or handsome, for the liveried men.)

It's been a difficult process because every day we'd go into rehearsal and discover that everything had changed. And then once we started rehearsing onstage, that REALLY started messing everything up. Bill keeps saying that we'll probably be just about perfect by closing night.

However difficult it is, it's definitely been great fun. We spend the entire evening on one side of the stage with the same group of people, and with Craig, James, Gerry, and newbies Michael and Andrea on my side, it often gets a bit silly. One of the chorus women "tsked" and rolled her eyes at us one night, which got us going even more. It's a very stressful show, and it helps to have an outlet for the nerves. But once we're on stage, of course, we're all business. It only takes one time of Bernard blaring, "Maaaaaids!" over the loudspeaker to make us shape up.

Which reminds me, Bernard is quite funny. I've been in maybe 5 operas that he's directed, and he's tough but can also be a lot of fun. He keeps calling the maids "little girls"...add a strong French accent and presto, instant inside joke. One night he was calling us onstage and said, "Little girls...my little girls...oooh, I am like Maurice Chevalier!" I thought that was extremely funny! I couldn't find my spikes one night and he angrily turned to the nearest stagehand and said, "Fix the tape! This is insane! If I were little girl, I would not know how to find them, either!"

It's a nice production; the principals are all quite good and the direction is nicely done. The boat that gets pulled onstage by the chorus guys is particularly funny. Add some phallic croissants and pyrotechnics, and you've got a Mozart opera.

Pictures from the show are being added daily in the Photo Gallery! (I received a digital camera for Christmas, but it has a very tiny memory card...probably so that you're forced to go out and buy an expensive one. Until that happens, I can only take about a dozen pictures or so at a time.)

Madame Butterfly

On Tuesday I went to the Opera Pacific production of Madame Butterfly. I'd seen this particular production in San Diego, but was very pleasantly surprised by some of our innovative additions.

Butterfly is touted as the "warhorse" of opera, and like anyone who attends opera regularly, I've seen it more times than I've kept track of. I suppose opera companies stage it when they want to bring people in...I don't imagine modern operas can pack a house quite like Butterfly or Boheme or Barber. (I almost said Carmen, but I liked the whole alliteration thing I had going. And personally, if I have to sit through another Carmen I really think I'll lose my mind.)

Despite having seen a flock of Butterflys, Pinkertons and Troubles, I still enjoy the show; the only problem I have with it is that the entire opera takes place on one set, and it's usually not even a very interesting set. Looking at the same thing for 3 hours always makes the show drag a bit for me. Happily, Opera Pacific combated that problem by having set changes, which worked extremely well. That broke up the visual monotony beautifully.

I was sitting in the front row, which was a bit distracting because my friends were on stage 12 feet away from me so of course I watched them instead of the principals! Everyone did a great job, especially all the brand-new Asian supers. They were onstage for an awful lot of the show, and they performed like old veterans. Who, in this production, were Michael and Rom! Ah yes, I was there when they both started out...

It was nice to see a lot of supers in the audience, as well!

I have to say, in all of opera my least favorite character is Pinkerton. I don't like his character and I don't like his music. But in this production there was a moment in Act One when Pinkerton was standing on an empty stage, far upstage, and he was silhouetted against a blue backdrop. It made him look like he was in the middle of the ocean or a cloud of fog. And something about that image stuck me so forcibly...it evoked a sense of sympathy for him that I'd never had before. It showed a vulnerability and isolation that I'd never seen under his bluff and swagger. It certainly made the rest of his scenes more interesting.

I did think it odd that the audience laughed raucously at the "At what time of year do robins build their nests?" exchange. I was pretty horrified, actually. I think those are some of the most beautiful, touching lyrics in any opera...it was a little disconcerting that people were laughing at Butterfly instead of feeling incredibly sorry for her! I saw a little flick of surprise across the soprano's face; I guess she wasn't expecting it, either.

All in all, a wonderful production. I love that I belong to an opera company that isn't afraid to push the "traditional" envelope a bit, but doesn't usually cross the line into taking artistic license for the shock value. It's a rare blend.

Yes, It's The Opera With The Anvils

I have to admit, I never really cared for Trovatore.

I've seen SO many productions of this opera...wait, let me rephrase...I've seen so many BAD productions of this opera. And that can certainly damage your opinion of the show, no matter how brilliant the music.

However.

Our recent Opera Pacific production was REALLY well done. It was innovative without getting crazy (what's up with all the naked people onstage at LA Opera recently??), and had some really wonderful acting, which helps any production tremendously. I ended up standing in the wings watching most of the show every night. Go figure!

I had a lot of fun with this show, primarily because there was a great group of supers. Bill, Zane, James, Craig, and of course Ada, the only other lady super. Ada and I got to wear very pretty green dresses and hang out on stage a lot. Didn't do much when we were out there, but like I said, the dresses were pretty, so we looked good!

One of the women playing Leonora was Turid, who turned out to be one of my favorite principals ever! I saw her standing in the wings one night about 15 minutes before she was supposed to go on, which surprised me because most principals wait until the last minute. But she told me that she adores watching the show from the wings - "it feeds my soul," she said. How cool is she?? I heard somewhere that she got into professional opera at a relatively late age (for opera singers). What I do know is that every time I saw her, she looked like she was having the time of her life, and absolutely thrilled to be where she was and doing what she was. What an incredibly great person to work with.

The classic super moment of the run: Bill and I were wandering around backstage, chatting and not really paying attention to where we were going, and we walked right into a jazz cabaret show in Founders Hall! There were raised eyebrows and murmurs when I, dressed as a medieval courtier, walked in...but when Bill, dressed in full medieval cardinal garb, walked through the door, there was stunned silence. The look on the patrons' faces was priceless! Bill and I smiled cheerily at them, turned around, and got the heck out of there!

The fact that it was me and Bill that did it made it even funnier. I mean, between the two of us we've probably done 30 or 40 operas. We're the old-timers that really should have known better! But oh my, it was funny.

It also brings to mind the time a couple of supers were wandering around backstage, chatting and not paying attention to where they were, then suddenly realizing they were onstage! I mean, what does one DO at that point? I can't ask them; I believe that was the last opera they were ever in...

Send me your opera stories! I'll post them if you like, and everyone can enjoy them. Also feel free to send me pictures that I can share with the other supers; I don't have pictures of every show, but would love to post 'em if you've got 'em.

Check out the Photo Gallery page for Trovatore and Boheme pictures! I’m also in the process of downloading tons of pictures from other shows, so look in from time to time.